Jinda Thai 

It's no secret that Jinda Thai is one of Melbourne's best Thai restaurants. Nestled in an alleyway near North Richmond station, it would be easy to blink twice and miss this bustling Thai establishment.

With its exposed brick walls, large white wooden framed windows, packed share tables, and modern open steel kitchen, this industrial style venue has a homely but lively dinner vibe. 

Filled with popular Thai curries, stir-fries and rice noddle dishes (all at a very reasonably price), the menu itself is what you'd expect from a traditional Melbourne Thai restaurant. But the food itself was far from the every day Thai - fresh, vibrant and just bursting with flavour.

Whilst a curry puff is generally just a curry puff - Jinda Thai's curry puff ($7.90) took the dish to a whole new level.  Crisp on the outside and delectably spiced on the inside, the little puff was far from oily and was complimented beautifully with its accompanying peanut sauce.

 

For mains we shared the Thai green curry ($16.90) and the chicken and cashew nut stir-fry ($16.90).  Whilst the stir-fry usually came with 'crispy' lightly fried chicken, the staff didn't hesitate to accommodate my fellow diner's gluten intolerance, replacing the chicken with a non-fried version.  The fried chicken, however, definitely was not missed, as the crispness of the fresh vegies added the needed dimension of texture to the dish. 

The Thai green curry was up there with one of the best I have had in Melbourne - fragrant and deliciously creamy, (but not overpoweringly so) with the perfect amount of heat that was left lingering on the tastebuds.

 

Jinda Thai is famous for its pandan and milk tea cakes ($8.50).  Considering that I wasn't even sure what pandan was (I have since discovered it is a tropical plant), I thought I should definitely give it a try.  Accompanied by coconut ice-cream (which was actually my favourite part of the dish) the cake was soft and gooey with an interesting, almost green tea like flavour.  I enjoyed it, and admired it for its uniqueness, but by no means am I in a rush to go back to try some more.

Bucking away from the Melbourne trend, Jinda Thai takes bookings for lunch and dinner sittings.  As the secret has long been out as to the quality of its food, I would highly recommend making one if wanting to avoid the long line of people queuing out the door.

Service: 4/5

Venue: 4/5

Food: 4/5 

Total 12/15
Verdict: Love - rush out and try it soon